Wider use of UAVs in the battlefield is creating demand for higher performance camera systems. The relatively low gimbal number of gimbals produced leaves gimbal manufacturers with only off-the-shelf or very expensive custom camera systems for options. Gimbals cannot simultaneously drive down cost and increase performance in pace with demand. The US Army IVAS program includes an initiative for state of the art low light, SWIR, and LWIR cameras to be produced in very high volume and, thus, low cost. AES proposes to leverage the sensors and electronics, i.e. the camera core, used in IVAS to create a family of cameras for UAV gimbals. The cameras will be both high performance and low cost. Reuse of the camera core means the cameras can be developed with low effort on a short schedule.
